A symposium entitled "The Cell Surface in Development and Cancer" has been approved by the American Society of Zoologists Divisional Program Officers. The symposium will be held at the 1983 Philadelphia Meeting of the ASZ, December 27-30, 1983. In this two day symposium, seventeen contributors to our understanding of the involvement of cell surfaces in the controls governing normal and abnormal cell growth, differentiation, migration and assembly will review their specific subject areas and describe their most recent discoveries. This will provide, in a single symposium, a wide-ranging coverage of diverse areas of investigation of normal and malignant cell function and behavior, all having in common the regulatory activities of cell surfaces. The speakers include both luminaries at the top of their respectivefields and some carefully chosen younger investigators whose work is taking new directions and merits exposure in a national symposium. The central purpose is to accelerate progress in solvingthe problems of how cell surfaces contribute to the control of normal and malignant cell behavior.Because investigators of these problems have diverse professional affiliations and publish in (and read) different sets of journals, those working in one professional quarter are often unaware of important developments in another quarter. The seventeen speakers have made significant, recent contributions to our understanding of cell surface-mediated regulation of cell activities that are necessary for normal growth, development, and morphogenesis and that misfunction in malignant cells. Arrangements have been made for publication of a symposium volume. It is hoped that speakers, listeners, and readers alike will gain awareness of new developments and obtain new insights into this important area, that new research will be stimulated, and that scientific progress will be enhanced as a result. (T)